Kid sex suit slams NYPD

1970s case of rape & assault

The director of an NYPD youth program raped and sexually abused a young teen in the 1970s, luring him away from other adults to commit the assaults, according to a new $20 million lawsuit.

Alfredo Dones claims that between 1978 and 1979, when he was a 13-year-old boy in the 7th Precinct’s Sea Safari Cadets, he was subject to merciless sexual abuse and rape at the hands of the program’s director, Gilberto Maldonado, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed Thursday.

“The assault included but was not limited to, fondling, masturbating and raping [Dones],” the lawsuit said.

Dones said he was first assaulted by Maldonado at the youth program’s headquarters at the Broome St. firehouse in Manhattan, and later during field trips to Van Cortland Park and Harriman State Park, according to the suit.

Maldonado allegedly used the field trips to sexually assault, molest and rape Dones and other young children in the program, the suit said.

The NYPD and the city, both defendants in the lawsuit, “knew, or should have known” that Maldonado was a predator and were equally culpable for the crime, lawyers wrote.

“Rather than taking steps to prevent Maldonado from sexually assaulting children, including removing him from a position of trust and confidence with, and authority over, young boys, the defendants instead turned a blind eye while Gilberto Maldonado repeatedly molested … Dones as a child during at least a year,” the lawsuit said.

“The defendants left a sexual predator in charge of a program for school-age children and took no steps to protect the young victims on whom Maldonado preyed,” said the lawsuit.

“These are serious allegations dating back to the late 1970s. We will review this case carefully when we are served and respond accordingly,” said Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the city Law Department.

New York State lawmakers this week voted to extend the Child Victims Act by an extra year, because of coronavirus restrictions. The act was passed last August to lift the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases.

Lawyers for Dones claim the horrific assaults he survived as a young boy have had lifelong consequences.

“The abuse he was subjected to left scars so deep that sometimes made it unbearable for him to face each new day. [Dones] was forced to live with feelings of shame, anger, disgust which eventually [caused] him to attempt to commit suicide,” the suit states.

Dones could not immediately be reached for comment.